Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's Portable: The Gears of Destiny
|genre = 3D fighting |platforms = |published = December 22, 2011 |continuity = continuity::Portable |chronology = chronology::0066 }} is the sequel to Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's Portable: The Battle of Aces. It was released on published::December 22, 2011. Gameplay Game play is largely similar to the one in the Battle of Aces. Each character gets an HP and Mana bar and the battle ends either when the time runs out or one of character's HP reaches zero. The mana is of course used for magical attacks and if a Mage runs out of mana he can not use the ranged attacks until it recharges. The mana bar can also be recharged by using melee attacks. Unlike in the previous game, where dodging was a separate resource, dodging in this game also consumes mana and a character out of mana can not dodge and can only move normally. The battles are fought at two "ranges" in air: long range and cross range. Depending on range the selection of abilities that characters can use and the mechanics of combat change. While the ranged part of the battle is done in air, the characters can only move on a 2D plane. In this mode each character gets three ranged attacks of which most often one is a quick but weak (▢ button), one is strong but longer charging (△ button) and the third is often some kind of binding attack (◯ button) that will stun/bind the enemy if it connects. Most of the attacks also have a charged variant which is used by holding down the relevant button which are often stronger but longer charging variant of the normal attacks. Cross-range range combat is conducted in a side scrolling fashion where characters can only move left and right. Cross-range combat is automatically started whenever characters get closer than 5m of each other and ends whenever the range between is longer than 9m. Due to low range the vast majority of cross-range attacks are melee attacks. Like in ranged mode different buttons get different type of attacks. ▢ is usually a normal attack, △ puts up a barrier guard and ◯ is a grab attack. The triangle guard is struck by enemy attack will initiate a counter attack which will negate enemy attack, deal damage on enemy and throw them away into ranged mode. The grab attack is a counter for the enemy hiding behind the barrier guard or a shield but is also really short ranged and slow and as such makes the character attempting it vulnerable to normal attacks. Unlike the ranged mode where attacks are single button affairs, all characters also have combo attacks initiated by rapidly pressing a combination of buttons. The most common is the charge attack which allows a character to close the range and hit the enemy from beyond their normal range and is initiated by double tapping △. Regardless of range the characters can always dodge (X button), if enough mana is available. Dodging is pretty much necessary to avoid guided and strong beam attacks like Divine Buster so being out of mana puts a character at a serious disadvantage. The fact that mana can not be regenerated at range using attacks coupled with the fact that dodging is disabled while out of mana is supposed to force even range focused characters like Nanoha into cross range (melee). Each character can also always use a shield (R button) to block any enemy attack but blocking enemy attacks consumes mana and if mana runs out while she shield is deployed the character will be stunned and left completely open to attack. Finally each character can enter Full Drive mode (L button) twice (once in story mode) per battle for a limited amount of time. During Full Drive mode attacks are stronger or even have slightly different variants (example Nanoha's Divine Buster in FD mode becomes Hyperion Smasher) and also the character gets unlimited mana. Another usefull feature of entering Full Drive is the fact that it allows the character to get out of any bind, stun or juggle (when the character is thrown unto air by attack) status effect. It will also throw away the enemy if he is next to the character. The Full Drive mode ends either after it's time runs out or after the character successfully performs their Full Drive Burst ultimate attack. FDB attacks can only be initiated from melee (L button) with attacks that are rather slow and as such rather easy to avoid. The exception to this rule are Yuuno Scrya and Presea Testarossa's who can initiate them from any range. Once the attack connects a cut scene specific to the FDB is played with the character saying the aria and doing the attack. The aria is always the same except during specific story mode battles where a story relevant aria is used. Costumes Different rare costumes can be unlocked by earning "lyrical points" and inheriting save data of The Battle of Aces: * Lounge wear * Swimming suit * collaboration costume The following are available only by entering (merchandise) product codes with authentication: * The MOVIE 1st Barrier Jacket (Nanoha and Fate) * Christmas costume (Nanoha and Fate) * Swimming suit (Materials) Story The story of The Gears of Destiny starts around 3 months (March 0066) after the "Dark Fragments Incident" in The Battle of Aces. Supplemental materials Comics See Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's Portable: The Gears of Destiny: Material Girls. for details. Sound Stages * Sound Stage M (Megami Magazine) "From the sky in Eltria": Story about Nanoha and Fate of the movie continuity dimension-travelling to Eltria. * Sound Stage A (Animedia Magazine) "Under the night sky of Midchilda": Story about Materials time-travelling to 0080's Midchilda, being four years after StrikerS, where they meet Nanoha and others again. Characters As the story of the game is related to time and space, characters from other series at different time-points are also playable. Known playable characters include: * Nanoha Takamachi * Fate Testarossa * Hayate Yagami * Amitie Florian * Kyrie Florian * Stern the Destructor * Levi the Slasher * Lord Dearche * Yuuno Scrya * Arf * Vivio Takamachi (Adult Mode) * Einhalt Stratos (Adult Mode) * Thoma Avenir (Reacted with Lily-Strosek) * Signum * Vita * Shamal * Zafira * Aria Liese and Lotte Liese (as a pair) * Chrono Harlaown * Reinforce * Presea Testarossa * Linith * Unbreakable Dark Unplayable characters: * Unison Hayate Yagami * Amitie Florian (With Kyrie Florian's Variant Zapper) * "Load" Dearche Trinity Form * Unbreakable Dark (With Examia's power) Settings Most of the additional settings introduced in The Gears of Destiny, especially those related to Eltria and the Florian sisters, are considered to be based off and crediting to , as the game's producer Akifumi Kaneko is also the producer/game designer of WA series. Below is a list of certain references between the two games: External links * Official Japanese website * Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's Portable: The Gears of Destiny at the Japanese Nanoha wiki A's Portable: The Gears of Destiny